Types of Obscurity in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure and ...

Damascus University Journal, Vol.28 No.1, 2012Sabbar S. SultanOut of these impressions, conclusions, and statements one can infer thefollowing view: all types of readers and researchers find in the book acatalyzing –point for their preconceived ideas and views of the artisticwork and their expectations of it. In the midst of the pursuit of keepingtrack of these tasks they overlook this self-evident point in the wholestructure of the book: the promise to show that Jude is in principle'obscure.'Hence the different readings of this novel and its author fromcultural, ideological, psychological and feminist viewpoints. Indeedpsychologists and feminists have excavated this text and its intellectualbackground. The latter are encouraged to see in the book the image of 'theNew Woman, particularly in her sexual life'(Ingham 9).The psychologicalsides of the book center on the twists and turns in the heroine'sdisposition and readiness to shift from one extreme to another with equalease, a point that supports the deep psychological levels of the book(Howe 145). Indeed the striking contrasts between Jude and Sue invitedifferent judgments and evaluations. If Sue has been labelled as a 'humanpig' for her indiscriminate sexual life, Jude represents the opposite as heappears to be one of inviolable dignity: he suffers more for others than forhimself. Given these facts about Jude's nature, it is logical to state that theelements of obscurity lie in the others with their treacherous andsubversive plans and projects rather than the protagonist. In one of hisrenowned statements, Hardy asserts that' the business of the poet andnovelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things, and thegrandeur underlying the sorriest things(qtd.in Draper 33).When testedaccording to this yardstick, the balance or synthesis between the twopoles of the characters(Jude and Sue )is not fully maintained as Jude's"grandeur" outweighs the sordid facts of his life. The opposite holds trueto the frigid and enigmatic Sue.In a word, the obscurity ofJude is negligible in psychological terms when he is compared withothers. He only remains 'obscure' in the academic and scholarly fieldwhich remains an always unfulfilled dream. This obscurity has not beenelaborated adequately. Thus the thematic and technical or artistic planesof the novel do not have the expected harmony. As such, the reader andthe author cannot collaborate in agreeing on the book's final innuendoesand meanings. Jude is a text that is susceptible to various interpretationsof readers. This multiplicity of readings is neither intended by the authornor approved as seen through his complaints in the preface of his early125